United Nations: UN will lose its credibility
as the pre-eminent international forum if member states are unable to agree on reforming the size, membership and working
methods of the Security Council, General Assembly President Joseph Deiss said Tuesday.
India is an aspirant for a permanent seat on the Council
and New Delhi has been pushing hard for change.
"Unless we find the determination to advance on this
issue, the United Nations will lose its credibility," said
Deiss, speaking at a conference on council reform in Rome.
"Our organization will be marginalized, and important
issues will be discussed in other forums and groupings which
are perceived to be more efficient and more representative of
the new realities of the day," he said, as quoted by the UN.
News service.
The 15-member council currently has five permanent and 10
non-permanent seats.
India is currently serving a two-year term as a
non-permanent member, which began in June 2011.
In February, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna pushed
the reform agenda along with the other G4 nations --Brazil,
Germany and Japan that also want to get a permanent seat.
The reform process has been going on for almost two
decades.
But several questions are yet to be resolved, which
include how many new seats should be created, who gets these
seats and when should the veto power kick in.
"Is there no way to overcome the divisions and to forge a
win-win compromise that would be acceptable for a broad
majority of Member States?" Deiss asked.
Negotiations have shifted from the so called "Open Ended
Working Group" of the nineties to a text based negotiations.
Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that third
text has already been distributed and has become subject of
negotiations.
"I hope that Member States will expedite their
negotiations, text-based negotiations. The third text has
already been distributed and has become subject of this
negotiation," he said.
During his visit to India, last year, President Barack
Obama endorsed India's seat on the Council.
Speaking at an informal meeting in March, Hardeep Singh
Puri, India's envoy to the UN described the Security Council
reform process as "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum".
"The title of the movie summed up our efforts here 'Joy
sometimes, despair at other times," he said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 09:42